Timely presentation
Your cover story titled, “Solar Vs. Nuclear” in the issue dated 23 June 2011, was a very nicely written article. Best, it had a very timely presentation. After going through it, one would understand (I had this feeling too) that if someone really wished to support “nuclear reactors” as a power source, then they should build their plants as far as possible from where humanity resides. In reality, I like your support of the Sun as a power source, as the Sun is in reality a power plant, although not with the fission kind of reaction (but with a fusion type). And those who believe in nuclear plants as sources of energy, should also understand that even the Sun has been rightly placed very very far from the Earth, so that we can enjoy it as a power source and yet, not get affected wrongly by accidents like the one that happened recently at Fukushima’s nuclear reactors. As for safety concerns surrounding power generation at a nuclear reactor (man made), I am afraid there are still issues regarding that as widespread energy generation from nuclear energy is a process which is very much in the research stages, especially for densely populated countries like India. So I see only benefits if we conduct more and more research to improve the efficiency of solar energy devices. We can work towards reducing their costs and therefore the end prices in the market. Solar versus nuclear – solar is much safer, but a lot is still left to be done to improve power output from both sources.

Provocative
Business & Economy is one of the most interesting and practical business magazines available in the market. It has set a standard which is par excellence. I really liked your story on hybrid cars titled ‘Still waiting for the woods?’ To be honest, I was not aware of certain facts like Honda Civic’s reduction in price for liquidating their imported hybrid cars. I was not at all aware that this move by the Japanese auto major helped boost sales of hybrid cars phenomenally. The article is well-researched and is appropriately complemented with the views of industry stalwarts, something which has now become a trademark of all articles appearing in B&E. But this one particularly is slightly revolutionary and provokes the readers to react at times, like when reading about the issue of CO2 emission. What kind of a planet are we going to leave behind for our future generations? The bigger question however is – is there enough motivation for auto makers to pursue such a technology? A practical and executable solution is only possible if infrastructural issues are dealt with. We genuinely need to respond to a problem of this magnitude, ignoring which is nothing less than suicide.